**Rep Dennert Legislative Week Five As things begin to heat up in Pierre, several bills have not survived the committee process. With the stimulus package passing in Washington this week, we in Pierre are anxiously awaiting the details on how the funds coming to South Dakota can be used in our current FY 2009 and next FY 2010 budget. Right now, it appears some of the Governor's proposed budget cuts cannot be made and allow our state to continue to qualify for Federal funds. At this time, I do not know for sure which cuts will need to be reinstated. As more information comes from Washington it will help us in Pierre in preparing our FY 2010 budget. One of my bills, HB 1185, was tabled in committee this week. This legislation proposed to appropriate money from the REDI and Future's Fund to help balance the FY 2010 Budget. After a very educational discussion on HB 1185 showing the reason not to invade these funds, the tabling motion was made. The heavy lifting will soon be upon us in the House Chamber. We have not taken up any Education Funding, Ag Property / Assessments, Final Budget cuts, nor others. Some of the sales tax increase proposals have been killed in Committee but there still is other legislation in process that could be used to enhance revenue for South Dakota. I have stated and will continue to approve only of revenue enhancements that are progressive in nature. I am also looking at fee increases the same way. I still have one bill, HB 1174, that has not yet had committee consideration. This legislation stops the Governor from shifting 6.3 million dollars of education funding from the state to local effort (property tax). I cannot support such a burden shift because raising taxes will not help those that are already in difficult economic times. I will fight to lower local effort for school funding as long as I represent District 2 and South Dakota. Please call or email me any concerns: 605-396-2482 Home 605-396-7152 Cell hpd@nvc.net
**Rep Frerichs February 11, 2009 Fee and sales tax increases continue to be the message that we as legislators receive from the Governor's Office. This is troubling, and I remain committed to not supporting an increase in fees, as well as not supporting an increase in the sales tax. Even a 1% increase in our state sales tax would serve as a 25% increase in the tax that would be required from South Dakotans who are faced with budget problems as well. We can find ways to balance our State Budget such as looking to the REDI and Futures Fund as well as taking a greater share of the Deadwood gambling money. I am also in favor of an across the board cut to all of State Government, not targeting specific programs. I am excited about two pieces of education legislation: SB 140 and SB 185. SB 140 is the whole-grade sharing bill that allows local school districts to move students to a neighboring school, but still retain their identity. This may be the first step in consolidation, but it still reserves the rights for local school districts to determine when the time is right. SB185 upgrades the high school graduation requirements to make them more user-friendly for any type of student, especially students who take Career and Technical Education courses. I serve as the House Prime Sponsor on both of these bills, and they achieved their first approval by passing the Senate Education committee. The Department of Education has been very involved on both of these bills and continues to be supportive. SB 140 and SB 185 will have a direct impact on our school districts in northeast South Dakota. This past week I presented two bills. One bill attempted to allow inter-library loan access for all citizens in South Dakota. This idea was brought to me by Mr. Lawrence Diggs. Unfortunately, the bill was defeated, but I know Lawrence is ready to find some alternative action in the future. The other bill I presented was to allow a winter load increase of 10% for trucks. This bill was defeated in the House Transportation committee. Both of these bills had a very fair hearing, and I now have some ideas to work with these topics in the future. As always, I enjoy hearing from you, so please send me an email at rep.frerichs@state.sd.us. I am also providing legislative updates on my website: www.jasonfrerichs.com. Feel free to give me a ring anytime at 949-2204 or 773-3851. Your Representative Jason Frerichs, Wilmot
**Rep Gary Hanson This week in Pierre, the legislature heard a diverse range of bills. One of the main issues discussed this week was energy. SB 94 was narrowly defeated and would have given landowners who installed small/residential wind turbines some property tax relief. This bill was intended to stimulate the expansion of small wind energy. Last Friday, the bill died on the floor of the Senate when the Lt. Governor Dennis Daugaard broke the tie by voting against the legislation. The Senate Democrats asked that the bill be reconsidered again on Monday, but it failed by one vote. This week on Wednesday, an energy efficiency bill faired better than the residential wind bill. SB 202 sets a goal for the state to reduce the energy consumption in its state facilities by 15 percent by 2015. Additionally, it was recently announced that ITC Holdings Corp. wants to build the world's largest renewable-energy transmission system, a $12 billion project to bring electricity from wind from the Dakotas to Chicago. This is a 12,000 MW transmission line that has the capability to create a "Green Power Express" for South Dakota wind energy. I am encouraged by the prospect for this significant development, but am committed to ensuring that landowners' interests and rights are protected. I also would like to see an expansion of community wind energy, as a result of the additional transmission. I am working with my colleagues in the legislature to maximize the benefits to South Dakota communities. On a different note, the Senate Democrats proposed a "Pay To Play" bill that was defeated this Wednesday in the Senate State Affairs Committee. The bill (SB 168) was modeled after the Illinois statute that entangled Governor Blagoevich, who was impeached last week. The bill would have limited the ability for individuals to contribute campaign contributions to certain political candidates if they had a contract with the state for over $25,000. I will continue to seek to enact "better government" programs that create transparency in political campaigns and avoid the potential for abuses. I appreciate all of the letters and emails I have received so far. Please feel free to contact me about your views on up-coming issues at sen.garyhanson@state.sd.us or call me at (605) 773-4494. Sincerely, Sen. Gary Hanson Sen.garyhanson@state.sd.us
**Rep.Wismer Last week Appropriations Committee heard presentations from the Departments of Corrections, Human Services, and Social Services. Tuesday we heard from Education. All are very large users of general fund dollars-places where we have more control over where our tax dollars go. Of course, they are also areas where the people feel the effects of government cutbacks: places like nursing homes and adjustment training centers, which will receive no rate increase to address their labor retention problems, medical, chiropractic, and dental services for Medicaid cases, the sales tax on food refund program which will be terminated, foster care for children with no home, and of course operations of the prisons. We heard testimony that indicated that several programs that are being terminated, like adult dental care, autism, Birth to 3, and medical case management, will probably lead to higher medical and educational costs in the long run, because treating problems in a preventative manner stops conditions from creating other emergencies that end up being paid for by our medical system and tax dollars. The Department of Corrections unveiled a new site for a minimum security prison facility in Rapid City last week. A substantial percentage of inmates are from the Rapid City area, and a local facility would help to transition the inmates back to being a productive part of society. Corrections was very excited that they'd found a good spot after several other failed choices, but the locals are very upset that the site is in a new development area. I'm not sure how much coverage the initiative reforms we passed last week got. We voted on two attempts to keep our state from being such a magnet for out-of-staters to peddle their pet issue. Our citizens are forced to spend lots of money dealing with issues because our media markets seem cheap to the rest of the country, if not to us. One provision that passed requires that the attorney general's explanation of the bill be attached to the petition as it is passed. A more controversial provision that I supported required that petitions be gathered in at least 33 counties across the state. This should stop the phenomenon of collecting all the signatures at events like concerts and will give more parts of the state the opportunity for input into the signature gathering process. Stay tuned for further developments! Feel free to contact me with questions you may have. You may contact me via e-mail at the state legislative address. I'm at Rep.Wismer@state.sd.us
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